EXCELLENT! Japanese top court greenlights massive surveillance of Muslims in Japan

A legal challenge to police profiling of Japan’s Muslim population has been dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Al-Jazeera Mohamed Fujita used to host religious study groups at his home that were open to all Muslims. But today he’s afraid to invite strangers, in case they’re police informants. Extensive surveillance has put many people of his faith on edge, he says, sowing mistrust.

A native of Japan who converted to Islam more than two decades ago, Fujita was one of 17 plaintiffs in a lawsuit that challenged blanket monitoring of the country’s followers of Islam. His name has been changed in this story to protect his identity, after police documents labelling him a possible security threat were leaked online.

“They made us terrorist suspects,” he says. “We never did anything wrong – on the contrary.”

Fujita’s wife first noticed the couple was being followed by law enforcement in the early 2000s. He says he would go out of his way to cooperate with officers when they would occasionally approach him. But they eventually asked that he report on other members of his mosque and he refused.

Then came the leak in 2010 of 114 police files, which revealed religious profiling of Muslims across Japan. The documents included resumé-like pages listing a host of personal information, including an individual’s name, physical description, personal relationships and the mosque they attended, along with a section titled “suspicions”.

The files also showed by the time the 2008 G8 summit was held in Hokkaido, northern Japan, at least 72,000 residents from Organisation of Islamic Conference countries had been profiled – including about 1,600 public school students in and around Tokyo.

Police in the capital had also been surveilling places of worship, halal restaurants, and “Islam-related” organisations, the documents showed.

Turkish Muslims rioting in Tokyo (Click CC button for translation)

Within a few weeks of the leak, the data had been downloaded from a file-sharing website more than 10,000 times in more than 20 countries.

Fujita and the other plaintiffs, many of whom were originally from Middle Eastern or North African countries, sued in the hope the courts would deem the police practices illegal. Their lawyers said police had violated their constitutional rights to privacy, equal treatment, and religious freedom. After two appeals, the Supreme Court dismissed the case on May 31.

The justices concurred with a lower court that the plaintiffs deserved a total of ¥90 million ($880,000) in compensation because the leak violated their privacy. But they did not weigh in on the police profiling or surveillance practices, which a lower court ruling had upheld as “necessary and inevitable” to guard against the threat of international terrorism.

“We were told we don’t have a constitutional case,” says Junko Hayashi, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “We’re still trying to figure out, how is it not constitutional?”

Law enforcement mostly ignored the case. One of the few public statements they made came at a United Nations human rights committee hearing on the matter in 2014. An official from the National Police Agency said “details of information-gathering activities to prevent future terrorism could not be disclosed”, but that “police collected information according to the law”, according to UN records.

Some have defended the surveillance of Muslims, including Naofumi Miyasaka, a professor at the National Defense Academy of Japan. He describes the data leak as “the biggest failure in the history of Japan’s counterterrorism” because it would have hurt the ability of law enforcement to gather intelligence on potential threats through “mutual trust and cooperation between police and informants”.

The Supreme Court decision generated few headlines and little public debate in Japan. Local media outlets had covered the legal proceedings by focusing on the leak of information, tiptoeing around the police surveillance issue.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the National Police Agency declined a request to comment on the court decision, and would not confirm whether they continue to profile and monitor Japan’s Muslim community.

But the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Hayashi, who is Muslim, says she believes the surveillance has only intensified. “It’s a really, really difficult thing to deal with, especially for the kids growing up here,” she adds. “The police have been dealing with them as future terrorists.”

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Comments

The Japanese have, on the whole, been very protective of their people and their culture. They are like a large extended family. There are some places in Tokyo with “Only Japanese Allowed” and no one makes a fuss but instead respects them for honoring their own people. A country where top execs don’t get special parking places but believe that a maintenance man is just as important as a CEO. It’s not perfect-workers were petitioning for higher wages-but it sure is an improvement on the US model.

The muslims do not want to mess with them. With their inborn devotion to their heritage and their ancestors, the muzzies will soon learn how unwanted they are. I have a feeling muslims in Japan will find that deportation will be one of the options the Japanese could use.

The US can never be like this because we have decades ago diversified and split from one another. It is hard to feel like one Nation when our population resembles a patchwork quilt. This is why muzzie neighborhood protect their own, even when they know or have an idea that something is brewing with one of their neighbors.

Well, the Japanese government is great & more wise than the American & European government. They are conservative about allowing Muslims in. Protecting their people. Then in a video, I see the ungrateful Muzzies again riot to get their way in the country that’s taken them in. Lastly, I see a couple of ignorant Japanese men who know nothing about Pisslam other than no eating pork & dressing different offering uneducated conversation about how bad America & Christians treat Mussies. Somebody needs to educate them about all the people, including Christians, that the Muzz have killed. Some people shouldn’t be allowed on television. Their brains are too small.

It’s the only sensible approach to Islam. Throughout its history, Islam has destroyed everything in its path. Impossible to survive Islam without eradicating one’s culture. Japanese government knows this. BRAVO !

Outlaw islam. It’s the only way. You give leniency and they will exploit it until the muslim agenda over runs and takes over. You can’t play patty cakes when they are playing Russian roulette but have the gun pointed at our head instead. They are having a feeling out of Japan but forget it’s not America so they can’t use their laws against them yet. These muslims are crafty sheisters and they must be squashed and booted out. I think Japan will pull them apart limb by limb if they act up there. Americans are getting fed up too. Spy on the real terrorists, the muslims.

The Japanese people and government are protecting their nation from a Jihad cancer takeover…. Perhaps all the fish the Japanese eat enables them to think. Americans need to eat more fish.. Trump for president…

Muslims should think of their peace of mind and leave Japan. All benefit, the Japanese and the Muslims. If the Muslims ever want to come back for a temporary visit, hotels near Fukushima can probably be arranged.

Japan is still a sane superpower. Although Japan have their share of demented regressive left-wing lunatics, the Japanese people don’t allow them near positions of power. Japan will enjoy peace and prosperity for ages to come while western nations and the US wither away because we have let dangerous lunatics run the asylum.

If he is preaching religion of “peace” why should he worry about informants. Lets be honest it would be near impossible to sneak a Japanese police officer in and make him look and sound like them.
The Al-Jazeera reporter wants to preach jihad and decide how to file frivolous discrimination lawsuits

I agree ..while I value my privacy ..I also know that sometimes it may have to be sacrificed in order for my own protection…..in this case with the world as it is today..we are all very aware there is a REAL threat where ever there is a Muslim population … and so I think anything goes to weed out the threat….and as with everything these days ..if you have nothing to hide what’s the problem…..show us how open to public scrutiny you are…show us how you want to cooperate and send a message of peace to non Muslims… keep hiding it..keep defending privacy as a way to avoid detection and you will only instil more suspicion..anger.. mistrust..and by the way…I think not just for Muslims/Islam…but for anyone/thing that want to remain hidden … out of reach or accountability to the larger community..

No where in the world is safe from the people who are actively taught that everything in the world actually belongs to them. They are taught to steal from & kill non believers.
Japan is much safer than any other country without them. Reason – Islam represents only around .2 of 1% of their country, meaning around 400,000 inhabitants in their country. Small numbers per head of population are much easier to control.
Japan is smart – they do not let any more immigrate to their largely peaceful country.
Still, with these numbers within their country, they are bound to have some of the sickest of these people within, who wish to harm innocent citizens and their peaceful way of life. So Japan simply does the right thing and closely monitors them.
I can only say – Living and working in Australia in a Government job, where I can say with very high certainty – that my employment here and at other various large employers since the early 90s has been seriously compromised by 1st fellow worker Drug addicts (Opportunists – for money! – at my innocent expense) , then in Sydney, both, by further people put in management jobs who are of the Islam faith with on some on drugs and gambling addictions.
My current job, just within the last fortnight has had people actively doing things to disrupt my job and make it look like I am seriously doing wrong – every way they can think of. I imagine I do not know most of what they do – just some. It is not nice!
People I can say, who are likely blindly led by someone from the top (of Islam faith) who can get anyone (seemingly by spreading lies and bribes about myself) – they get people from any faith to do their dirty work.
Well, my wife is Japanese – and although our relationship has strains bought upon it, largely because of what these people do – it gives a sound reason to simply pack up and move to a much safer country (Japan). My only problem, being – not knowing the language – hence, not finding work. Should my wife work in Japan and support us – they are paid around 1/2 of the mans salary. Yes nothing is perfect anywhere. At least they are allowed to work!
Japan does however, rightfully protect their citizens from people who actively would like to harm non believers – by simply not allowing any to immigrate. Easy!
Hence, their job of monitoring 400,000 muslims is a much easier job, than monitoring say 5 million muslims, had they taken the Western path and allowed more than 2% of them to be living in Japan.
So, a big thanks to politicians here in Australia from me, for all the stress you people passed on to myself and other law abiding people (and our law enforcement) by allowing in these supreme people into our country. So nice to go to work and wonder, oh what faceless person and what charm act might they do to me today, with me just going to work and do an honest day’s work.
Thank you Japan for looking after your country and your good people.
You rightfully know they are a big problem!

What on earth do they expect? If you lay with dogs, you rise up with fleas! Being Islamists, is enough to warrant these actions. Islamists are either killing people all over the world, or donating money to HELP kill people all over the world.

Let’s say Christians (and I am one) went all over the world killing homosexuals, blowing up abortion clinics, mosques, etc, then it would stand to reason that CHRISTIANS need to be surveilled. But is this happening on a regular basis? NO………………

You don’t want to be surveilled…then take up arms against your counterparts Muslims. But of course they won’t so….surveil away!

Japan seems to be one of the very few countries in the world that is being realistic about what should be obvious to anyone who makes no more than a day or two’s study of Islam, which is that it is irredeemably savage and evil, and represents the greatest threat to civilisation that the world has ever known.
The information is all out there and comprehensively documented, but so many leaders are ignoring it all, and are determinedly marching their citizens towards a horrible extinction.
Thank goodness at least the Japanese have got the good sense to acknowledge the deadly truth about the Death-cult, and are actually doing something to contain it.
So: Hopefully, Japan will retain its identity and culture, and will never become primarily :
” The Land of the Rising Bum”.